Emily Dickinson Lexicon

POS'TU-LATE, v.t. [supra.]

1. To beg or assume without proof. [Little used.] – Brown.
2. To invite; to solicit; to require by entreaty. – Burnet.
3. To assume; to take without positive consent. The Byzantine emperors appear to have exercised, or at least to have postulated a sort of paramount supremacy, over this nation. – Tooke.

POS'TU-LA-TED, pp.

Assumed without proof; invited.

POS'TU-LA-TING, ppr.

Assuming; inviting; soliciting.

POS-TU-LA'TION, n. [L. postulatio.]

1. The act of supposing without proof; gratuitous assumption. – Hale.
2. Supplication; intercession; also, suit; cause. – Pearson. Burnet.

POS'TU-LA-TO-RY, a.

1. Assuming without proof.
2. Assumed without proof. – Brown.

POS-TU-LA'TUM, n. [L.]

A postulate, – which see. – Addison.

POS'TURE, n. [Fr. from L. positura; pono, positus.]

1. In painting and sculpture, attitude; the situation of a figure with regard to the eye, and of the several principal members with regard to each other, by which action is expressed. Postures should be accommodated to the character of the figure, and the posture of each member to its office. Postures are natural or artificial. Natural postures are such as our ordinary actions and the occasions of life lead us to exhibit; artificial postures are such as are assumed or learnt for particular purposes, or in particular occupations, as in dancing, fencing, &c. – Addison. Encyc.
2. Situation; condition; particular state with regard to something else; as, the posture of public affairs before or after a war.
3. Situation of the body; as, an abject posture. – Milton.
4. State; condition. The fort is in a posture of defense.
5. The situation or disposition of the several parts of the body with respect to each other, or with respect to a particular purpose. He casts / His eyes against the moon in most strange postures. – Shak. The posture of a poetic figure is a description of the heroes in the performance of such or such an action. – Dryden.
6. Disposition; frame; as, the posture of the soul. – Bailey.

POS'TURE, v.t.

To place in a particular manner; to dispose the parts of a body for a particular purpose. He was raw with posturing himself according to the direction of the chirurgeons. – Brook.

POS'TUR-ED, pp.

Placed in a particular manner.

POS'TURE-MAS-TER, n.

One that teaches or practices artificial postures of the body. Spectator.

POS'TUR-ING, ppr.

Disposing the parts of the body for a particular purpose.

PO'SY, n. [s as z. Qu. poesy; or a collection, a cluster, from the W. posiaw, to collect. See Pose.]

1. A motto inscribed on a ring, &c. – Addison.
2. A bunch of flowers. – Spenser.
3. A corruption of poesy. [1841 Addenda only; see POESY.]

POT, n. [Fr. pot; Arm. pod; Ir. pota; Sw. potta; Dan. potte; W. pot, a pot, and potel, a bottle; poten, a pudding, the paunch, something bulging; D. pot, a pot, a stake, a hoard; potten, to hoard.]

1. A vessel more deep than broad, made of earth, or iron or other metal, used for several domestic purposes; as, an iron pot for boiling meat or vegetables; a pot for holding liquors; a cup, as a pot of ale; an earthen pot for plants, called a flower-pot, &c.
2. A sort of paper of small sized sheets. To go to pot, to be destroyed, ruined, wasted or expended. [A low phrase.]

POT, v.t.

1. To preserve seasoned in pots; as, potted fowl and fish. – Dryden.
2. To inclose or cover in pots of earth. – Mortimer.
3. To put in casks for draining; as, to pot sugar, by taking it from the cooler and placing it in hogsheads with perforated heads, from which the melasses percolates through the spungy stalk of a plantain leaf. – Edward's W. Indies.

PO'TA-BLE, a. [Fr.; Low L. potabilis; It. potabile; from L. poto, to drink; potus, drink, Gr. ποτος, from πινω, πιομαι, to drink.]

Drinkable; that may be drank; as, water fresh and potable. – Bacon. Rivers run potable gold. – Milton.

PO'TA-BLE, n.

Something that may be drank. – Philips.

PO'TA-BLE-NESS, n.

The quality of being drinkable.

POT'AGE, n. [from pot; Fr. id.; It. potaggio; Port. potagem; W. potes; Arm. podaich. This is a more correct orthography than Pottage.]

A species of food made of meat boiled to softness in water, usually with some vegetables or sweet herbs.

POT'A-GER, n. [from potage.]

A porringer. – Grew.

PO-TAG'RO, or PO-TAR'GO, n.

A kind of pickle imported from the West Indies. – King.

POT'ALE, n. [pot and ale.]

A name in some places given to the refuse from a grain distillery, used to fatten swine.

PO-TA-MOL'O-GY, n. [Gr. ποταμος, a river, and λογος, discourse.]

A treatise on rivers.

PO'TANCE, n.

With watchmakers, the stud in which the lower pivot of the verge is placed. – Ash. Scott.

POT'ASH, n. [pot and ashes; D. potasch; G. pottasche; Dan. potaske; Fr. potasse.]

The popular name of vegetable fixed alkali in an impure state, procured from the ashes of plants by lixiviation and evaporation. The matter remaining after evaporation is refined in a crucible or furnace, and the extractive substance burnt off or dissipated. Refined potash is called pearlash. The plants which yield the greatest quantity of potash are wormwood and fumitory. – Kirwan. Nicholson. Encyc. By the discoveries of Sir H. Davy, it appears that the essential part of potash is a metallic oxyd; the metal is called potassium, and the alkali, in books of science, is called potassa.

PO-TAS'SA, n.

The scientific name of pure fixed vegetable alkali or protoxyd of potassium.